As Donald Trump prepares to make a historic gamble by meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the US diplomatic corps is in disarray after the president’s brutal sacking of his secretary of state. Rex Tillerson’s departure adds to the long list of senior job vacancies at the top of
As Donald Trump prepares to make a historic gamble by meeting North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the US diplomatic corps is in disarray after the president’s brutal sacking of his secretary of state.
Rex Tillerson’s departure adds to the long list of senior job vacancies at the top of the State Department, and Washington is preparing for the summit without several key diplomats in place.
Trump, of course, may not mind this at all.
His view on how to deal with the threat of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal is much more in tune with that of his nominee to replace Tillerson, CIA director Mike Pompeo, than with US diplomats.
Tillerson’s plan followed a classic strategy. Build relationships and trust with early contacts; establish parameters for negotiation; draft a deal between senior officials; hold a leaders’ summit.
“I have a lot of confidence in my ability to create the conditions for successful negotiations between two very disparate parties,” Tillerson told reporters on his last plane trip as secretary.
Trump — who bluntly informed Tillerson in a tweet last year that he was “wasting his time” operating back channels to Pyongyang — had a different view, and one apparently shared by Pompeo.
They believe the US must show Kim that the US is ready to use crippling sanctions and even military force if he refuses to give up his nuclear arms, then get him to the table and thrash out a deal.
In January, Pompeo appeared at the conservative AEI think tank in Washington and laid out this plan to convince Kim — who may be misreading diplomatic signals — that Washington is serious.
